Isaiah, 47

1. Step down! Sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground, no throne, daughter of the Chaldaeans, for never again will you be called tender and delicate.

1. Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: [there is] no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.

2. Take the grinding mill, crush up the meal. Remove your veil, tie up your skirt, bare your legs, cross the rivers.

2. Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.

3. Let your nakedness be displayed and your shame exposed. I am going to take vengeance and no one will stand in my way.

3. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet [thee as] a man.

4. Our redeemer, Yahweh Sabaoth is his name, the Holy One of Israel, says:

4. [As for] our redeemer, the LORD of hosts [is] his name, the Holy One of Israel.

5. Sit in silence, bury yourself in darkness, daughter of the Chaldaeans, for never again will you be called the mistress of kingdoms.

5. Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.

6. Being angry with my people, I rejected my heritage, surrendering them into your clutches. You showed them no mercy, you made your yoke very heavy on the aged.

6. I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke.

7. You thought, 'I shall be a queen for ever.' You did not reflect on these matters or think about the future.

7. And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: [so] that thou didst not lay these [things] to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it.

8. Now listen to this, voluptuous woman, lolling at ease and thinking to yourself, 'I am the only one who matters. I shall never be widowed, never know bereavement.'

8. Therefore hear now this, [thou that art] given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I [am], and none else beside me; I shall not sit [as] a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:

9. Yet both these things will befall you, suddenly, in one day. Bereavement and widowhood will suddenly befall you in spite of all your witchcraft and the potency of your spells.

9. But these two [things] shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, [and] for the great abundance of thine enchantments.

10. Confident in your wickedness, you thought, 'No one can see me.' Your wishes and your knowledge were what deluded you, as you thought to yourself, 'I am the only one who matters.'

10. For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I [am], and none else beside me.

11. Hence, disaster will befall you which you will not know how to charm away, calamity overtake you which you will not be able to avert, ruination will suddenly befall you, such as you have never known.

11. Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, [which] thou shalt not know.

12. Keep to your spells then, and all your sorceries, at which you have worked so hard since you were young. Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will strike terror!

12. Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail.

13. You have had many tiring consultations: let the astrologers come forward now and save you, the star-gazers who announce month by month what will happen to you next.

13. Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from [these things] that shall come upon thee.

14. Look, they are like wisps of straw, the fire will burn them up. They will not save their lives from the power of the flame. No embers these, for keeping warm, no fire to sit beside!

14. Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: [there shall] not [be] a coal to warm at, [nor] fire to sit before it.

15. Such will your wizards prove to be for you, for whom you have worked so hard since you were young; each wandering his own way, none of them can save you.

15. Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, [even] thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.